National debt and gross national product climbs from 20% to 40% under Hoover; levels off under FDR; soars during World War II. From Historical Statistics US (1976)
Had Hoover remained in office we would have had a real chance of a Marxist uprising. Its amazing to see how people are blind to the fact that Hoover had 3 years to deal with the Depression and failed miserably as the nation's morale slipped deeper and deeper into despair...
Don't settle for reading revisionist history alone - search out the archives, the newspapers from the time to get the full flavor of the despair this nation was in when FDR took office - and see how he single-handedly turned that around, literally saving the nation from a far worse fate. Monday morning quarterbacking repeating dogma does not tend to lead to positive brain growth...
National debt and gross national product climbs from 20% to 40% under Hoover; levels off under FDR; soars during World War II. From Historical Statistics US (1976)
We instead had a disguised one, headed by Harry Hopkins. We know that quite a few FDR appointees and their staffs were outed as Soviet spies by the Venona project many years after McCarthy was incorrectly reviled as a Red baiter.
Today, communists in government are called Democrats who have assumed the mantle of the old Progressive Party. If you look at the goals of the Progressive Caucus in Congress, they mimic the goals of the Communist Party USA.
So we didn't have bloody purges or pogroms like the Soviets, Mao or Pol Pot, but we are sliding into socialism just the same. FDR just gave the communists a huge start on the process.
Hoover was totally wrong on the economy because he believed in corporatism and had a total misunderstanding of monetary policy. Read Murray Rothard on it and you'll have a better understanding of Hoover's mistakes.
The full weight of the Depression was not felt until late 1931, and if Hoover's polices were not working, it was not for want of trying. He spent two years depending on the help of the business community, but he also was taking agressive and unprecedented federal action. Probably if he had continued in office he would have taken many of the same actions that Roosevelt did during the 100 Days. That said, FDR brought to the office the kind of personal leadership that Hoover could not. FDR failed, but despite his failures he ws never disheartened and he conveyed his courage to the American people. What did the guy say about FDR: Second rate intellect; first rate temperment? He made tons of mistakes and more at the end because he was pushing himself to the limit. TR junior worked himself to death in Normandy; FRD did the same. He never wore a uniform, but he was a great soldier. Salute!